Nov 5, 2023

New World Trio “Commemoration”. Chamber music program Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 4pm at UUSE, 153 Vernon St. West, Manchester, CT. Works by Rachmaninoff, Hagen, and Shostakovich. Anhared Stowe, violin, Peter Zay, cello, David Ballena, piano. Suggested donation $20 to benefit UUSE.

Remembrance of people and events and the desire to tell their story has been a powerful motivator for many composers to produce their most inspired works. This program features three remarkable piece by giants of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Rachmaninoff wrote this one movement trio in his final year of conservatory, and it recalls his mentor Tchaikovsky’s famous elegiac trio as it marks the end of Rachmaninoff’s apprenticeship. Daron Hagen has created a contemporary masterpiece based on the gospel hymn “Angel Band” which was written to commemorate Joyce Ritchie Strosahl, who lived an inspiring life as a musician, instructor, and benefactor. In the concluding trio, Shostakovich employs motives ranging from funereal to danse macabre in a powerful and deeply moving tour de force written during WW2.

New World Trio, founded in 1985 by violinist Anhared Stowe, presents wide-ranging concerts of both classical and contemporary chamber music works, performed with consummate artistry. New World has held residencies at some of the finest venues in Connecticut, including The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and The Hartt School. Now in residence at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the trio typically gives 12-15 concerts annually throughout the state. In addition to its live performances, New World was regularly featured on WNPR’s “Best of Connecticut Concert Hall Live” program.